Not What It Looks Like?
by PrincessAndula
Summary: This was meant to be an "Heir to the Demon" fix-it, but it took on a life of its own. Obvious spoilers for 2.13, "Heir to the Demon".


**I own nothing. "Heir to the Demon" could have been so good, but they had to throw those last few seconds in there. This is what I think ought to have happened after the screen faded to black, my "Heir to the Demon" fix-it. I hope I got Oliver's voice right. More author's notes at the end.**

I pulled Sara closer as I closed my eyes. Suddenly, all I could see was the look of shock and disappointment on Felicity's face when Isabel Rochev walked out of my hotel room. I tried to ignore it; to keep kissing Sara. I opened my eyes; but I could hear Felicity's voice when she said, "I think you deserve better." I pushed Sara away.

"We can't do this."

"What?" She was looking at me in confusion.

"This. Us. We're toxic. I'll always care about you, Sara. I want us to be friends, and teammates, and if we do this, we're going to mess that up. We're going to crash and burn like we always do, and I can't do that to my team."

"Ollie?"

"That's just it. I'm not Ollie anymore. Sooner or later, we all have to grow up."

"From Peter Pan to Robin Hood, huh?"

"I don't wear tights," I growled.

"You've also lost your sense of humor. Don't grow up too much, Ollie. You're probably right, though. I don't think this is going to help me patch things up with Laurel. If I want my family back, I'm going to have to grow up, too."

"You'll still stay, then?"

"I told you. I'm done running. I'm home."

"Good," I replied, giving her a very platonic hug. I chuckled to myself as I used the word "platonic" in my mind, thinking of Felicity's rambles.

"What's so funny?" Sara inquired.

"Just thinking of something Felicity says."

"Is that why you really stopped?"

"Is what why I really…"I suddenly realized what she meant. "No, no. Felicity and I are just friends."

"So you weren't thinking of her at all when you pushed me away?"

I must not have schooled my features quickly enough.

"Ah-ha…I wondered about the two of you when I was here before. It must be pretty serious if it was enough to stop you. I mean, you were planning to move in with my sister, and that didn't stop you from inviting me on the Gambit."

"I told you, we're just friends." Why does everyone think we're together?

"You're in love with her."

I started to open his mouth to deny it, but I closed it again. I was terrible at remembering Shakespeare, but I thought I remembered a line about somebody protesting too much, probably from Romeo and Juliet.

"Well, if I'm not going to release any tension with you, then I'm going to need to beat up that dummy over there. Move aside."

Just as Sara nudged me with her shoulder to move past me, the door to the Foundry opened and Felicity walked in, dressed for a workout and tapping away at her smart phone. Thinking of how she could have walked in on us, I was relieved to have dodged that bullet. Or maybe I hadn't, I realized, as Felicity put her phone away and looked at us. Sara was still in her bra, and I still didn't have a shirt on, and we were standing pretty close. It looked like exactly what it was.

"It's not what it looks like," I blurted out. Of course it is, and people only ever say that when it is what it looks like. Sara rolled her eyes at me.

Felicity blinked, opened and closed her mouth a few times, and finally spoke, "Really? Because it looked like I walked in on a thing. So I can leave…except that, you two do know that other people have to work down here, and eat down here, and be down here…and I bought those new training mats! So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy some bleach, too, because, ew!" She started to turn around, but turned back to shout in her Loud Voice, "BUT STAY AWAY FROM MY BABIES!"

"Felicity, wait," Sara said. Felicity waited. "We both had a rough night, and we both came down here to beat up this punching bag." Okay, so we were going with the half-truth. That was definitely less awkward than the whole truth. "Looks like you had the same thing in mind?"

Felicity shook her head, ponytail bouncing, as she descended the steps. "I was just texting Roy to let him know I got here safely. He'll be here any minute. Sometimes when Slave Driver Oliver here gives us a night off, he meets me here to teach me some self-defense."

"Roy!?" I practically shouted.

"Who's Roy?" Sara asked.

"He's my…" Felicity and I answered in unison. I paused, looking at her to see if she would continue, but she pressed her bright pink lips tightly together and shook her head. I wondered what she had been about to say. I stared at her for a minute before I realized that Sara was still waiting for a reply.

"He's my little sister's boyfriend. "

Sara tilted her head, as if to ask why he was in on the secret.

I sighed. "And he's been injected with Mirakuru. I don't know why or how, but somebody's been building super soldiers in Starling City. It's one reason that I wanted you to stay and join the Team so badly."

Sara's eyes had widened and she had gasped when I said "Mirakuru".

"Oliver's been training Roy to control his powers, and Roy has been training me. Well, we've only gotten in one session before tonight, because Roy hasn't been on the team for very long. Not officially on the team, anyway. He's helped us out here and there, but he didn't know our identities until recently. He didn't even know that we were a we until after he knew Oliver's identity. Not that we're a we. I mean, Oliver and I aren't a we. But we as a Team, including Dig…"

She finally noticed how intensely I had been glaring at her since she said that he'd been training her.

"What?"

"I don't want you alone with him anymore. We still don't know what he's capable of," I growled.

She stepped closer until she was toe-to-toe with me and got right up in my face. "You don't get to tell me with whom I can spend time alone, Oliver Queen. You are not the boss of me. Well, you are my boss, but not in that sense. Besides, Roy would never hurt me."

"How do you know that?"

Just then Roy walked in. "Hey, Blondie, are you ready to…" His voice trailed off when he saw Sara and then me. "Who's that?" he asked, gesturing to Sara.

"So this is Roy, huh? We've met." Sara smiled.

"Uh, we have?"

Sara walked over to her leather jacket, slung on the back of Felicity's chair, and pulled her black domino mask out of the pocket, holding it in front of her eyes. "Recognize me now?"

"You're the girl with the stick!"

Pleasantries were exchanged, and Sara returned to the dummy (not Roy, the inanimate one), while Felicity and Roy moved to the mats. I shot a quick text to Dig, because apparently this was a Team gathering, and I wanted him on my side to protect Felicity from Roy. Then, to relieve all of the pent-up frustration (of multiple kinds), I took to the salmon ladder. I tried to ignore how close Roy (now bare-chested) was standing to Felicity. I tried to ignore his chuckles and her giggles as she tripped over her own feet a few times. I tried to ignore how he put his arms around her to move her into a fighting stance. But I couldn't ignore it when she finally used his weight against him to flip him onto the mat and proceeded to sit on him.

"Look, Sara!" she crowed. "I pinned him!"

Sara looked over and clapped.

"You can let me up now, Blondie."

A wicked grin slowly spread across Felicity's face and she shook her head.

A matching smirk formed on Roy's lips. It was actually kind of spooky how similar their smiles were at that moment. "Then I guess it's time to find out if you're ticklish!" Suddenly, she was the one on the mat, and his fingers were flying over her ribs as she screamed with laughter.

I vaguely felt my feet hit the concrete floor as I dropped from the salmon ladder, and vaguely heard Diggle finally enter the room.

"Enough!" I shouted, as I walked over to the mat.

Everyone froze.

"Felicity, I'm disappointed in you."

"Because I'm ticklish? I know it's a weakness, but I'm not the superhero, just the geeky sidekick, so…" she trailed off as I glared at her.

"Roy, didn't I tell you what I would do to you if you ever hurt my sister?" I growled.

Roy looked confused. Felicity burst out laughing again. "He thinks that we…" she gasped. She buried her face in Roy's chest for a second, then pushed him away. "You're stinky," she informed him, still giggling.

I reached for my bow.

Felicity sat up and spread her arms, turning her body into a shield for the little punk.

"No, wait. It's not what it looks like!" Like I haven't used that line myself enough to know it's never true. Just tonight, in fact…

"We're just going to have to tell them the truth, Blondie."

"And by 'we' you mean me?"

Roy nodded.

"Fine, but you owe me coffee every morning for a week."

Roy nodded again.

Felicity stood up and walked toward me.

"Remember what I told you this morning?"

"About Thea?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "No, about my dad."

I nodded.

"I never bothered with background checks on Roy before you told him your identity, since, you know, we knew he had a record anyway…no offense." Roy shrugged, and Felicity continued. "Anyway, I decided if he was really going to be working this closely with us, we ought to know more about him."

"Invasion of privacy," Roy fake coughed.

"Shut up, Hoodie," she retorted.

"What does this have to do with your dad?"

"I'm getting to that," she responded impatiently. "You know, Roy's dad abandoned him, too."

"So you two bonded over that, and you thought that made it okay to steal my sister's boyfriend?"

"Oliver, will you please listen to me? I was 4 when my dad left, 20 years ago. Roy is 19."

"So?"

"Oliver, look at us. Really look at us. And remember that I am not a natural blonde."

Roy came up behind her, and they both smiled at me.

Sara and Diggle stood beside me.

"Same almond-shaped blue eyes," whispered Sara.

"Same dimples," added Dig.

"That's because Roy is my half-brother."

**I wish I could say I was going to continue this, but with a 3 year old and a 7 month old, I can't imagine I will have time to make this more than a one-shot. So, the whole Roy plot bunny came out of left field and begged to be written—originally, this was only supposed to be the Sara/Oliver/Felicity love triangle. I think the Roy thing came about because I've seen interviews and stuff about how Emily Bett Rickards and Colton Haynes are really close off set and they look so comfortable together. I would love to see this happen! Also, I don't think I really believe that Oliver would suddenly be mature enough to stop, but I'm choosing to believe it until it's cannonballed.**


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